The Red Sox announced today that Andrew Miller will make his season debut against the Padres on Monday after calling him up from Triple-A before his opt-out clause became an issue. However, in an appearance on WEEI's Mut & Merloni Show today, Peter Gammons said that the Yankees and several other teams tried to get Miller to opt-out of his deal. WEEI.com's Jerry Spar has the transcript.
"I know this," said Gammons, "There were a lot of teams that tampered and tried to get him to do the opt-out, including the New York Yankees. A lot of teams wanted him to opt out on Wednesday. Because of his trust for the Red Sox and how much they’ve invested in him — not in terms of money but in terms of effort to just get his delivery back and be patient with him, he stayed. In some ways, their fortunate. Because I think he could have gotten twice as much money if he had left."
MLB's tampering rules say "there shall be no negotiations or dealings respecting employment, either present or prospective, between any player, coach or manager and any club other than the club with which [the player] is under contract or acceptance of terms," which in English means that a team is not allowed to discuss employment with a player while he is under contract with another team. Yankees GM Brian Cashman responded to the report by saying they were simply "not true," reports Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger (on Twitter).
Miller, 26, pitched to a 2.47 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9 in 65 2/3 innings for Boston's Triple-A affiliate this year. In his last four starts before the promotion, he struck out 26 and walked just three in 25 1/3 innings.
